Visiting Birla Mandir in Kolkata

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Birla mandir is situated in Ballygunge. It is located on the side of the main road (Queens park road near old Ballygunge road). It is built by the industrialist Birla family. Many town busses go by that route. It is about 9 kms from Howra staion. Yes town busses are available from Howra to this place.

We first visited the Kali temple in Kalighat and from there went to Birla temple. In Google maps it appeared to be close (1.5 kms) to Kali temple. When I asked a hand pulled rickshaw he asked for 200 rupees. I was surprised as a taxi would even be cheaper. Later we came to know that taxis/auto rickshaws were not available in that place. Then another hand pulled rickshaw told he would drop us in Hazra for 100 rupees where auto rickshaws would be available. We thought not to bargain with the rickshaws and walked a while towards the main road. From there we got a town bus to reach Birla Mandir.



Before going Birla Mandir it is important to remember its timing. It opens from 5.30 to 11 AM in the morning and 4.30 to 9 PM in the evening. If by chance you reach there after 11 AM in the morning you have to return with sadness. The entry to the temple will be closed and you cannot even enter inside.



Birla temple is one of the top 10 attractions of Kolkata. The main dieties are Laxmi and Narayana. It costed about 180 million rupees to build the temple and was opened to public on 1996. I will not say much on the temple as the locals can say better on that. I can only say that it is worth visiting and comes within the top ten visiting places in Kolkata.

If you are visiting birla temple you can also visit some nearby places like Kalighat Kali temple (2 kms) and Alipore zoo (2kms) etc. The other interesting points in Kolkata are Belur Math, Dakhineswar Kali, Victoria Memorial, Eden Garden, Millenium park etc.You can see some more pictures of Birla Mandir in my google+ album below. Thank you for reading this post. Will brief you on another tourist point soon.

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